This is how diplomacy works. Not much happens. Not much happens. Not much happens. Then something does…so it’s a good thing that the US and Iran are talking in Baghdad, even though not much happened yesterday. But do I detect a buried lede here?
Underscoring the crux of the security problem here, a suicide bomber detonated a truck loaded with explosives at one of Iraq’s most revered Sunni shrines, the Abdul Qadir al-Gailani mosque in central Baghdad, shortly before talks concluded. The blast killed at least 19 people and wounded 69, raising fears of a retaliatory cycle of sectarian bloodshed similar to what happened last year when a Shiite shrine was bombed in Samarra. More than 1,000 people were killed in sectarian violence following the Samarra mosque attack in February 2006.
Some excellent eyewitness reporting by Time’s Charles Crain about al-Anbar Province
